Copyright for your Website

By general law, when content on the web is created, it is automatically copyrighted to that person. There is no longer a need for registering content to be copyrighted, nor is there a requirement for official copyright terms and outlines to be present.

However, if someone were to steal content, under the eyes of the law it could be very difficult to claim the original content to the original creator. Even without legal intervention, one-on-one intervention between the webmaster and thief could be troublesome.

That’s why it’s always important to consider copyrights in some form on your website. In this article I’ll go over the basics of copyright law, and how to protect your content.

The Legal Side

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an act that applies to the copyrights and ownership terms of the online world, including websites. By law, anything that is technically made by a webmaster is automatically copyrighted by that webmaster– despite a lack of formal copyright text.

However, if someone were to steal online content (which can obviously be done very easily), with no formal copyright text on the original website, that webmaster may be at a huge loss.

By putting the official copyright symbol on each page of the website, such as the footer, sidebar, etc. you can be more secure if anything were to happen. Although it is not needed for material to be claimed properly, the offender would have a more difficult time defending themselves upon confrontation with you, or under the eyes of the law.

“All Rights Reserved” and the year specified supply enough common law information to say that “The rights of all the contents on this website from [specified year] to present are reserved and copyrighted by [Website Name, or your name].”

Writing a Copyright Page

For a more formal approach, an actual copyright page could protect content even better. It’s a good practice to put a link to the copyright page on all pages. Unless your website is a multi-national online marketplace, your copyright page probably doesn’t have to be too long. Just some simple guidelines for an official approach if anything were to be stolen.

Below are the items that could be used on a copyright page.

Disclaimer or Copyright Notice

A disclaimer or copyright noticed is a longer paragraph, or a few shorter paragraphs stating what exactly is copyrighted and the rights you reserve for the content you create. Depending on a number of factors, this notice could include copyright statements concerning blog/website design, images, content, coding, and even ideas and features presented on your website.

Outside Credits

If you have used anything from another site, here is a good place to credit it. However, just because you credit it here, or anywhere else on your website for that matter, does not mean all content on the web is free.

Make sure you read the content terms on any borrowed content as well, to be sure you’re allowed to borrow it, even with credit given.

Policies for Borrowing Content

If you do let others use your content, lay out the terms necessary for your visitors to follow. Do they need to link you back? Is it completely free to use, no credit? What’s available for reproduction? What’s completely off-limits?

Also, do they need to do anything special to get this content, besides linking back? Fill out a form, register, or subscribe?

Formal Copyright Services

Unless your website is a huge corporation, or you’ve been having ongoing problems with users stealing your content, a formal copyright is usually not necessary.

Just in case though, it is possible to copyright your content through many outlets. Copyright.com is one of the many copyright services that offer yearly copyright licenses. There are services for copyrighting articles, text, and images individually, but there are also services for copyrighting entire websites.

How to Deal with Copyright Infringement

90% of the time copyright infringement is a mere accident. Either the borrower forgot to link you, didn’t see your copyright notice, or just didn’t consider it. To deal with it, send a friendly email with a link to your copyright page, or point out the copyright notice somewhere on your site.

If the problem persists, more severe actions can be made to get the site shut down, via contacting their web host. You can get their web host information through Whois.net.

Depending on the importance of content, legal action can always be taken as well, although it is not suggested for one article or a few graphics, of course.

Have you ever had content stolen from your website?

How did you deal with it?

Share It!

Kayla Knight is a 20 year old college student, part-time web developer, freelancer, and blogger. Webitect is where she spends too much of her freetime, sharing interesting finds and valuable resources. Be sure to check out her portfolio.

Yup, I have quite a number of times, designs stolen from my site. Content wise, I haven’t met any yet (hope I still don’t in the future). I e-mailed the person and they removed it immediately, no dramas over it though but they usually gave a rather stupid reason for copying the entire theme. I don’t believe them but I give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s always a headache to meet such problems.

I just found out about your website through one of your affiliates! I have to say your website is very interesting and I have found a lot of interesting subjects which I can apply on my website. I think I’m going to be here more often

Like Hilde above, I came from one of your affiliates’ domains. Am I glad to have come here! Thanks so much for all your tips — they’re all very well-written, but especially this article. And I love your site design. Plus, your domain name is just perfect! Bookmarking now. More power and God bless you!

I love this article! I was wondering though where (more specifically) on Copyright.com one can go to see how to get a web site copyrighted? I am interested in this as I have had large numbers of problems in this area.

Mimi,
Copyright.com is a great resources for copyrights of any kind featuring information an copyrighting services. Through anything on their sit,e though, you’ll always end up going to copyright.gov, the official copyright site where you can register a copyright.

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